---
title: "Wife," I answered, "I will not sacrifice this calf," and in spite o… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: "Wife," I answered, "I will not sacrifice this calf," and in spite of all her remonstrances, I remained firm. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 2, sentence 111

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"Wife," I answered, "I will not sacrifice this calf," and in spite of all her remonstrances, I remained firm.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** answer, not sacrifice, remain, spite · **To what, where:** calf, firm, spite, remonstrances · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg128:2:111
# text = "Wife," I answered, "I will not sacrifice this calf," and in spite of all her remonstrances, I remained firm.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	sacrifice	sacrifice	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	calf	calf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	23	det:predet	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	remonstrances	remonstrance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
27	firm	firm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **sacrifice** *in a quote* | future | I | this calf |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent calf=Theme |
| 3 | **remain** | past | I | firm |  | spite of cow's remonstrances |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme firm=Attribute |
| 4 | **spite** |  |  | cow's remonstrances |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 128 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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